Thank you for coming to the committee today. It's nice to see you again, Mr. Obed, and nice to meet you for the first time, Mr. Hicks.
Since we began this study, I've been hearing from a lot of people that suicide is simply a symptom in indigenous communities of all the problems that exist. Some people have been telling me that we need to work on a two-stage solution to the problem, with the first stage being getting in there with health workers and dealing with the problem in communities immediately, while the long-term solution is economic self-determination and creating the environment for the communities and the people within them to prosper.
What would you have this committee recommend to all our ministries, but most importantly to the Minister of Indigenous Affairs, to immediately help and then to prevent this from continuing in the long term?